Vented dryers: what 518 certified models measure

What this page measures#

Every number below comes from fw_models certified registries: 518 catalogued vented dryers from 22 brands.

A certified-product listing is a manufacturer filing, so this is a census of what is CERTIFIED — not of what is on sale, not of what is installed, and not of every brand on the market. Read each row as "of the 518 vented dryers in this corpus", never as "of all vented dryers". Each row states its own count, because not every listing fills in every field. Method: /methodology.

The short answer for vented dryers#

The 518 vented dryers catalogued here come from 22 brands, and all 518 state each of the three specs in the table. The middle listing has a drum capacity of 7.4 cubic feet against a range of 4 to 9.2, which is a well-behaved spread with the median sitting near its centre. The energy rows are not so even. Estimated annual energy use runs from 133 to 687 kilowatt-hours a year, but the median is 608 — close to the top of that range rather than the middle — so most of these listings sit high and a minority sit far below. The combined energy factor, which measures pounds of laundry dried per kilowatt-hour, runs 2.68 to 6.37 with a median of 3.93. Every figure describes this catalogue of certified filings, not what is on sale and not what is running in laundry rooms.

How vented dryers measure#

Lowest, middle and highest value stated by the vented dryers in this corpus. The middle value is a median, so a real listing holds it.

Every row above is a claim about one corpus — fw_models certified registries: 518 catalogued vented dryers from 22 brands (a certified-product census is not a census of units in service, and not every brand on the market is certified). Not every listing fills in every field, so the "Models stating it" and "Brands" columns are that ROW's own denominators: they count the models that state THAT spec, never the corpus total. Method: /methodology.

How to use these numbers#

The shape of the annual energy row is the thing worth understanding before anything is read into it. A median of 608 against a maximum of 687 and a minimum of 133 means the distribution is bunched near the top with a long tail running down: at least half of these listings state 608 or more, and the low figures are a small group rather than the other half of a spread. In practice that means the range is misleading on its own — quoting "133 to 687" invites the reading that a typical machine sits somewhere near the middle, around four hundred, and almost none of them do. What separates that low group from the rest is not something this table records, so the honest statement is that the low end exists and the corpus does not say why.

Capacity is the straightforward row. A median of 7.4 cubic feet is a real listing's value and the range of 4 to 9.2 is spread evenly enough around it that the median is a fair expectation. For pairing with a washer, the usual guidance is a dryer drum roughly twice the washer's volume, since laundry needs room to tumble — but that is a rule of thumb about how the two are used together, not something these certified filings measure or state.

The combined energy factor and the annual figure answer different questions and should not be swapped. The factor is a rate — laundry dried for each unit of energy — and it compares a large drum fairly against a small one. The annual figure is a total assuming a standard number of loads a year, which is why a large-drum machine can post a strong factor and still show a high annual number. Use the factor to compare listings, and treat the annual figure as a common yardstick rather than a prediction about your household.